Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Oct. 2.
- Records fall across state in rare October heat wave.
- Dozens of mayors back tough-on-crime ballot measure.
- And Bodega Bay hosts the finest hotel in America.
Statewide
1.
Tuesday’s extraordinary heat, by the numbers:
- Parts of San Francisco hit 95 degrees, the highest temperature in two years and the hottest October day in 28 years. @wx_zoe
- Dozens of cities across the Southwest set daily heat records, and a number had their hottest October days on record, including Death Valley (114 degrees), San Jose (102), Santa Rosa (106), and Blythe (112). @ThierryGooseBC
- Palm Springs and Indio were hottest of all, reaching a punishing 117 degrees. That ties the warmest October day ever recorded in North America, when Mecca hit that mark in 1980. @extremetemps
Forecasters offered little hope of relief anytime soon. Wednesday and Thursday are expected to be similarly scorching before a gradual cooldown through the rest of the week. “Brace yourselves. The summer weather — it just continues,” said meteorologist Adam Epstein. Desert Sun | KQED | FOX40
2.
Since going into effect on April 1, California’s $20 fast-food minimum wage has not led to overall job losses as industry groups had warned, a study by UC researchers found. Prices did increase by about 3.7%, or roughly 15 cents on a $4 hamburger. But the total number of fast-food employees across California actually increased in July compared with a year earlier, the most recent data showed. The study comes as Californians prepare to vote on a ballot measure that would lift the minimum wage for all workers to $18 an hour. KQED | Food & Wine
3.
When a survey last month showed that 71% of Californians supported tough-on-crime Proposition 36, Gov. Gavin Newsom reacted with indignation. “I was wondering what state I was living in,” he said. The measure, he added, is funded by “Walmart” and “conservative, right-wing DA’s.” It’s also backed by more than 70 mostly Democratic mayors representing cities from Beverly Hills to Fresno, according to a new roll call of endorsements. “Too many Sacramento politicians have attempted to dismiss the pleas of local officials,” said San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan. Bloomberg
4.
Newsom’s proposal to combat gasoline price spikes appeared poised to win Legislature approval after the Assembly advanced the bill on Tuesday and Senate leaders pledged to do the same. The measure would require refineries to keep more fuel on hand to avoid shortages when they go offline for maintenance. Economists have said that while inventory mandates may help dampen price spikes, they won’t address the larger problem of California’s high gas prices relative to the rest of the country. CalMatters | L.A. Times
Northern California
5.
When a Saratoga winery worker lost his housing, he asked the winery owner if he and his family of five could live in an RV on his 60-acre property. The owner, Michael Ballard, readily agreed. Then the county fined him $120,000. Ballard, his lawyer explained, was cited for what amounts to a single violation that harmed no one: “In fact, the Ballards were just trying to help their employee and friend with housing in an area that’s basically impossible for working-class people to afford housing.” Mercury News
6.
The announcement last week that Highway 1 would not fully reopen along the Big Sur coast this year came as one more crushing blow to San Simeon. In better times, the small coastal enclave near Hearst Castle bustled with tourists drawn by the area’s history, architecture, and natural beauty. Then the pandemic shut the castle for two years until its reopening in 2022. Hopes of a revival were short-lived as storms wiped out several sections of the highway. During a visit last week, the journalist Andrew Pridgen found the town eerily quiet. SFGATE
7.
On Aug. 1, a marine robotic company discovered the wreck of the “Ghost Ship of the Pacific” — the only U.S. Navy destroyer captured by Japanese forces during World War II — 70 miles northwest of San Francisco, the New York Times revealed on Tuesday. Though covered in marine life, the 314-foot-long destroyer is almost perfectly intact and upright on the seafloor. The discovery has thrilled archaeologists and raised hopes that a new era of drone-based discovery is about to unfold. N.Y. Times
8.
Ellen Cushing, a lifelong A’s fan, wrote eloquently about “the last out in Oakland”:
“Loving a team, like loving anything unconditionally, is the decision to make your world larger, even though it will hurt. Streaks end. Leads are blown while you get up for a beer. Your favorite guy gets traded, or injured, or sent down. A thing you organized your life around for years is taken away. The Oakland A’s were so much to so many of us, for so long, and now they are nothing at all.” The Atlantic
9.
The finest hotel in America is a situated on a bluff overlooking Bodega Bay. That’s according to Condé Nast Traveler’s “2024 Readers’ Choice Awards,” based on more than half a million votes. Guests of the family-owned Lodge at Bodega Bay, about an hour north of San Francisco, have praised its attention to detail: a fireside lounge surrounded by views of the Pacific, a complimentary glass of wine in the evenings, binoculars placed on every room’s windowsill. Condé Nast Traveler
Southern California
10.
A Long Beach man is facing up to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty on Monday to taking part in a $2.6 million heist from a Beverly Hills jewelry store. “There’s no instruction manual for how to commit the perfect crime,” the Los Angeles Times wrote, “but Ladell Tharpe learned the hard way that he probably shouldn’t have bragged about it on Instagram.”
11.
San Diego, a land of sunshine, fish tacos, and perfect beaches, also hosts a deeply rooted gang culture. For Miguel Valencia, that was part of life growing up in the neighborhoods in the city’s south and southeast. When he became a photographer, his upbringing granted him an unusual level of access to shadowy corners of the city. “The things outside I see are timeless, ruthless, and simply life in motion,” he told ThePhoblographer. See selections from his project “The Other Side of San Diego.”
12.
The world’s first known cactarium is in Palm Springs. Moorten Botanical Garden coined the word to describe its collection of desert plants and succulents established in 1938. For decades, visitors trickled into the unusual greenhouse after hearing word of an oasis that seemed to hum with tranquility. Then Instagram happened. Today, the cactarium sees hundreds of visitors daily. Palm Springs Life included Moorten Botanical Garden in a feature on 10 must-visit attractions in the city.
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The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
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